Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Read ithereNOW -- Across the RWA Digital Divide: An Important Report on the Rights of Digitally Pubbed RWA Authorsand the State of My RITA Ensemble

Over the coming months, you'll be seeing some bright, cheery new faces 'round these parts as you meet RBTB's new contributing editorial staff. But today's cheery face is one who's been hangin' since RBTB was at WNBC.com, et al, when RBTB community hung out at closely monitored message boards. We've come a long way -- and are on to an even more exciting phase of RBTB. Yes, I know you're hoping it's the one where the new contributing editors write daily instead of me. I get it, already. Today, Bellas and Bellos, won't you please give a warm Bella buongiorno to...

Amy Kennedy, RBTB Contributing Editor, Paranormal/Blended Genre

Amy Kennedy is a library technician who spends most of her days thinking she’s a kick-butt heroine from one of her favorite books -- with a hunky slab of an alpha hero by her side. Then she remembers she’s never taken even one Taekwon Do class. So instead she combs the romance, fantasy and mystery shelves for her next favorite author. She’s spent years working with library patrons, listening to their likes and dislikes and observing preferences and trends.

Amy fell in love with romance reading Kathleen E. Woodiwiss' "The Flame and the Flower." She adores paranormal romance and can barely breathe when she sees how her favorite genres -- paranormal, mystery and historical -- are blending to form new, vibrant, hybrid romantic reads.

Amy loves telling people about great new novels, and now she’s almost verklempt to be able to share her passion at RBTB where she’s been part of the community – and Michelle’s professional assistant – since 2006. Amy’s a member of Romance Writers of America and currently is working on her first contemporary romance.

You can check out Amy's Feature Review of Marjorie M. Liu's "The Fire King," tomorrow at RBTB.It's the 9th in FOB Marjorie's Dirk and Steele series. Go ahead, giggle, cause D&S sure does sound like a team of heroes from an 80s porn flick.

What paranormal and blended-genre romances do you think Amy should 'keep an eye out' for? Who are your fave authors and books in those sub-genres? And what kind of relationship do you have w/your librarian/s -- do they get you the romance fixes you crave?

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"Heart to Heart" (H2H) -- BN.com's new all-romance blog -- goes live tomorrow fromRWA national in DC! Check in to see what's news!

Hey Amy *waves*, I see I wasn't wrong when I thought: "Hey, that photo looks familiar."

I lovelovelove paranormals and fantasy (that's what I write myself, in fact). There's just something cool about meeting creatures and experience things that don't exist in real life.

One of my favs is Patrice Michelle. She's not (yet) as famous as other authors from that genre but IMO, she's one of the very best. Her Scions books are incredible, the characters are very real, the steamy scenes are hawthawthawt and the worldbuilding is absolutely unique. I got to know her a little through email-contact and she's such a nice person, too.

Virginia Kantra's cool, too. Her Children Of The Sea books are oh so good. Deals with paranormal creatures not as well known as vampires or werewolves which makes her very interesting.

And of course the fabulous Gena Showalter. The Lords Of The Underworld are hot. Hot. Hot (and did I mention hot?). The storytelling is wonderful. The characters, sometimes real anti-heroes, are amazing. She deals with Greek mythology which is very funny to read.

And what I like most about her books is the fact that there are always a number of plot lines, the main one with the main love story that is resolved in the book but also other ones which carry through various books (there are some things that started in book 1 and still aren't resolved - book 4 is due this September).

The only thing I don't like about her books is the fact that they need so damn long to be released. Next comes out next month (after waiting over. A. Year!) and then the others follow in June and July 2010. The world is a bad, bad place.

Hey, Bellas! Congrats Amy and Michelle! How cool is this?Me, I'm really lovin the paranormals right now and looking for new, great authors, so today's topic is...many koodos! I love, love, love, Kresley Cole and Nalini Singh! Can't get enough of them. Waiting with batted breath for Mrs. Singh's newest release to be delivered from Amazon this week! Can't wait! Squee!

Amy, I don't think Patrice writes Erotica per se, but her books definitely have an erotice touch with them (rather graphic language and oh so sexxy). Here's a link if you're interested: http://patricemichelle.com/

I have to admit that I haven't read Gena's Alien Huntress books (only LOTU and Atlantis). The topics somehow don't attract me so very much (which doesn't mean they're bad, it's just not it for me). But nevertheless I love her other stories immensely.

Isn't that funny Lisa? Because the only reason I picked up the alien huntress was because of the cover (I know, pretty shallow of me) and I kept thinking, this isn't going to be that great, because...um...aliens just aren't that sexy.

Buona sera, everyone, and welcome to the team, Ames! I'm a big fan of the Dirk & Steele books since Red Heart of Jade (is that thebook?), but you started the series before me. btw, the cover of the new book is hawt.

I'm getting ready for rwa and still haven't started packing, but finally finished my bn.com post for today. i hope you'll check it out. Why am I acting as if I have all the time in the world to get ready?

Lisa, I've met Patrice, and I kept thinking she'd actually GuestBlogged here, but couldn't find a post. Am I nuts? I know we talked about it... Please tell her I say hi next time you chat w/her.